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African Linguistics on the Prairie features select revised peer-reviewed papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, held at the University of Kansas. The articles in this volume reflect the enormous diversity of African languages, as they focus on languages from all of the major African language phyla. The articles here also reflect the many different research perspectives that frame the work of ... Mehr anzeigen

African Linguistics on the Prairie features select revised peer-reviewed papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, held at the University of Kansas. The articles in this volume reflect the enormous diversity of African languages, as they focus on languages from all of the major African language phyla. The articles here also reflect the many different research perspectives that frame the work of linguists in the Association for Contemporary African Linguistics. The diversity of views presented in this volume are thus indicative of the vitality of current African linguistics research. The work presented in this volume represents both descriptive and theoretical methodologies and covers fields ranging from phonetics, phonology, morphology, typology, syntax, and semantics to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, language acquisition, computational linguistics and beyond. This broad scope and the quality of the articles contained within holds out the promise of continued advancement in linguistic research on African languages.

The purpose of this volume is to present a snapshot of the state of the art of
research on the languages of the Maltese islands, which include spoken
Maltese, Maltese English and Maltese Sign Language. Malta is a tiny, but
densely populated country, with over 422,000 inhabitants spread over only 316
square kilometers. It is a bilingual country, with Maltese and English
enjoying the status of official languages. Maltese ... Mehr anzeigen

The purpose of this volume is to present a snapshot of the state of the art of
research on the languages of the Maltese islands, which include spoken
Maltese, Maltese English and Maltese Sign Language. Malta is a tiny, but
densely populated country, with over 422,000 inhabitants spread over only 316
square kilometers. It is a bilingual country, with Maltese and English
enjoying the status of official languages. Maltese is a descendant of Arabic,
but due to the history of the island, it has borrowed extensively from
Sicilian, Italian and English. Furthermore, local dialects still coexist
alongside the official standard language. The status of English as a second
language dates back to British colonial rule, and just as in other former
British colonies, a characteristic Maltese variety of English has developed.
To these languages must be added Maltese Sign Language, which is the language
of the Maltese Deaf community. This was recently recognised as Malta’s third
official language by an act of Parliament in 2016. While a volume such as the
present one can hardly do justice to all aspects of a diverse and complex
linguistic situation, even in a small community like that of Malta, our aim in
editing this book was to shed light on the main strands of research being
undertaken in the Maltese linguistic context. Six of the contributions in this
book focus on Maltese and explore a broad range of topics including:
historical changes in the Maltese sound system; syllabification strategies;
the interaction of prosody and gesture; the constraints regulating
/t/-insertion; the productivity of derivational suffixes; and raising
phenomena. The study of Maltese English, especially with the purpose of
establishing the defining characteristics of this variety of English, is a
relatively new area of research. Three of the papers in this volume deal with
Maltese English, which is explored from the different perspectives of rhythm,
the syntax of nominal phrases, and lexical choice. The last contribution
discusses the way in which Maltese Sign Language (LSM) has evolved alongside
developments in LSM research. In summary, we believe the present volume has
the potential to present a unique snapshot of a complex linguistic situation
in a geographically restricted area. Given the nature and range of topics
proposed, the volume will likely be of interest to researchers in both
theoretical and comparative linguistics, as well as those working with
experimental and corpus-based methodologies. Our hope is that the studies
presented here will also serve to pave the way for further research on the
languages of Malta, encouraging researchers to also take new directions,
including the exploration of variation and sociolinguistic factors which,
while often raised as explanatory constructs in the papers presented here,
remain under-researched.

This volume presents two works elaborating a general theory of words and their structure written by René de Saussure, younger brother of Ferdinand de Saussure. Although originating in René de Saussure's concerns for the structure of Esperanto, these essays are clearly intended to articulate a general account of word formation in natural language. They appear here in the French original with facing English translations, ... Mehr anzeigen

This volume presents two works elaborating a general theory of words and their structure written by René de Saussure, younger brother of Ferdinand de Saussure. Although originating in René de Saussure's concerns for the structure of Esperanto, these essays are clearly intended to articulate a general account of word formation in natural language. They appear here in the French original with facing English translations, accompanied by some remarks on René de Saussure's life and followed by essays on the Esperantist background of his analysis (by Marc van Oostendorp), the contemporary relevance of his morphological theory (by Stephen Anderson), and the semantic theory of words underlying his analysis (by Louis de Saussure). These two works have remained essentially unknown to the community of scholars in general linguistics since their publication in 1911 and 1919, respectively, although Esperantists have been aware of them. They develop in quite explicit form a theory of what would later be called morphemic analysis, based primarily on data from French (with some material from German and English, as well as occasional examples from other Indo-European languages). In its fundamental aspect, René's view of word formation differed significantly from that of his brother, who saw the structure of complex words as revealed not through their decomposition into smaller "atomic" units but rather in the relations between words, relations which could be presented in analogical form and which anticipate rule-based theories of morphological structure. The contrast between the two brothers' views thus anticipates basic issues in current theorizing about word structure.

Many researchers assume that the relation between morphology and phonology is not a direct one but is modulated by prosodic constituents, particularly the phonological word. Despite the theoretical relevance of the phonological word in morphophonology, phonetic investigations of the realization of (complex) words are still rare. The book aims to shed some light on this issue. On the basis of about 3800 tokens from ... Mehr anzeigen

Many researchers assume that the relation between morphology and phonology is not a direct one but is modulated by prosodic constituents, particularly the phonological word. Despite the theoretical relevance of the phonological word in morphophonology, phonetic investigations of the realization of (complex) words are still rare. The book aims to shed some light on this issue. On the basis of about 3800 tokens from experimentally elicited and spontaneous speech, it investigates the prosodic boundary phenomena glottal stop insertion / glottalization and degemination, as well as durational reductions and /t/-deletions in the vicinity of a morphological and/or prosodic boundary. Informed by findings from usage-based accounts of language, it systematically introduces token frequency and other potentially influencing factors into the analysis. The results yield a rather complex picture that, on the whole, corroborates the relevance of the phonological word as an interface domain between morphology and phonology. At the same time, the results underline the necessity to consider usage-based factors such as frequency, thus all in all lending support to so-called hybrid models of language.

Information structure is a relatively new field to linguistics and has only recently been studied for smaller and less described languages. This book is the first of its kind that brings together contributions on information structure in Austronesian languages. Current approaches from formal semantics, discourse studies, and intonational phonology are brought together with language specific and cross-linguistic expertise ... Mehr anzeigen

Information structure is a relatively new field to linguistics and has only recently been studied for smaller and less described languages. This book is the first of its kind that brings together contributions on information structure in Austronesian languages. Current approaches from formal semantics, discourse studies, and intonational phonology are brought together with language specific and cross-linguistic expertise of Austronesian languages. The 13 chapters in this volume cover all subgroups of the large Austronesian family, including Formosan, Central Malayo-Polynesian, South Halmahera-West New Guinea, and Oceanic. The major focus, though, lies on Western Malayo-Polynesian languages. Some chapters investigate two of the largest languages in the region (Tagalog and different varieties of Malay), others study information-structural phenomena in small, underdescribed languages. The three overarching topics that are covered in this book are NP marking and reference tracking devices, syntactic structures and information-structural categories, and the interaction of information structure and prosody. Various data types build the basis for the different studies compiled in this book. Some chapters investigate written texts, such as modern novels (cf. Djenar’s chapter on modern, standard Indonesian), or compare different text genres, such as, for example, oral narratives and translations of biblical narratives (cf. De Busser’s chapter on Bunun). Most contributions, however, study natural spoken speech and make use of spoken corpora which have been compiled by the authors themselves. The volume comprises a number of different methods and theoretical frameworks. Two chapters make use of the Question Under Discussion approach, developed in formal semantics (cf. the chapters by Latrouite & Riester; Shiohara & Riester). Riesberg et al. apply the recently developed method of Rapid Prosody Transcription (RPT) to investigate native speakers’ perception of prosodic prominences and boundaries in Papuan Malay. Other papers discuss theoretical consequences of their findings. Thus, for example, Himmelmann takes apart the most widespread framework for intonational phonology (ToBI) and argues that the analysis of Indonesian languages requires much simpler assumptions than the ones underlying the standard model. Arka & Sedeng ask the question how fine-grained information structure space should be conceptualized and modelled, e.g. in LFG. Schnell argues that elements that could be analysed as “topic” and “focus” categories, should better be described in terms of ‘packaging’ and do not necessarily reflect any pragmatic roles in the first place.

This book proposes the reconstruction of the Proto-Niger-Congo numeral system. The emphasis is placed on providing an exhaustive account of the distribution of forms by families, groups, and branches. The big data bases used for this purpose open prospects for both working with the distribution of words that do exist and with the distribution of gaps in postulated cognates. The distribution of filled cells and gaps ... Mehr anzeigen

This book proposes the reconstruction of the Proto-Niger-Congo numeral system. The emphasis is placed on providing an exhaustive account of the distribution of forms by families, groups, and branches. The big data bases used for this purpose open prospects for both working with the distribution of words that do exist and with the distribution of gaps in postulated cognates. The distribution of filled cells and gaps is a useful tool for reconstruction.

Following an introduction in the first chapter, the second chapter of this book is devoted to the study of various uses of noun class markers in numeral terms.
The third chapter deals with the alignment by analogy in numeral systems.
Chapter 4 offers a step-by-step reconstruction of number systems of the proto-languages underlying each of the twelve major NC families, on the basis of the step-by-step-reconstruction of numerals within each family.
Chapter 5 deals with the reconstruction of the Proto-Niger-Congo numeral system on the basis of the step-by-step-reconstructions offered in Chapter 4.
Chapter 6 traces the history of the numerals of Proto-Niger-Congo, reconstructed in Chapter 5, in each individual family of languages.

This book deals with the effects of three different learning contexts mainly on adult, but also on adolescent, learners’ language acquisition. The three contexts brought together in the monograph include i) a conventional instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) environment, in which learners receive formal instruction in English as a Foreign Language (EFL); ii) a Study Abroad (SA) context, which learners experience ... Mehr anzeigen

This book deals with the effects of three different learning contexts mainly on adult, but also on adolescent, learners’ language acquisition. The three contexts brought together in the monograph include i) a conventional instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) environment, in which learners receive formal instruction in English as a Foreign Language (EFL); ii) a Study Abroad (SA) context, which learners experience during mobility programmes, when the target language is no longer a foreign but a second language learnt in a naturalistic context; iii) the immersion classroom, also known as an integrated content and language (ICL) setting, in which learners are taught content subjects through the medium of the target language—more often than not English, used as the Lingua Franca (ELF).

The volume examines how these contexts change language learners’ linguistic performance, and also non-linguistic, that is, it throws light on how motivation, sense of identity, interculturality, international ethos, and affective factors develop. To our knowledge, no publication exists which places the three contexts on focus in this monograph along a continuum, as suggested in Pérez-Vidal (2011, 2014), with SA as ‘the most naturalistic’ context on one extreme, ISLA on the other, and ICL somewhere in between, while framing them all as international classrooms. Concerning target languages, the nine chapters included in the volume analyze English, and one chapter deals with Spanish, as the target language. As for target countries in SA programmes, data include England, Ireland, France, Germany, and Spain in Europe, but also Canada, China, and Australia. While the main bulk of the chapters deal with tertiary level language learners, a language learning population which has received less attention by research thus far, one chapter deals with adolescent learners.

Carmen Pérez-Vidal, Sonia López, Jennifer Ament and Dakota Thomas-Wilhelm all served on the organizing committee for the EUROSLA workshop held at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, in May 2016. It is from this workshop that this monograph was inspired

Multiword expressions (MWEs) are a challenge for both the natural language
applications and the linguistic theory because they often defy the application
of the machinery developed for free combinations where the default is that the
meaning of an utterance can be predicted from its structure. There is a rich
body of primarily descriptive work on MWEs for many European languages but
comparative work is little. The volume ... Mehr anzeigen

Multiword expressions (MWEs) are a challenge for both the natural language
applications and the linguistic theory because they often defy the application
of the machinery developed for free combinations where the default is that the
meaning of an utterance can be predicted from its structure. There is a rich
body of primarily descriptive work on MWEs for many European languages but
comparative work is little. The volume brings together MWE experts to explore
the benefits of a multilingual perspective on MWEs. The ten contributions in
this volume look at MWEs in Bulgarian, English, French, German, Maori, Modern
Greek, Romanian, Serbian, and Spanish. They discuss prominent issues in MWE
research such as classification of MWEs, their formal grammatical modeling,
and the description of individual MWE types from the point of view of
different theoretical frameworks, such as Dependency Grammar, Generative
Grammar, Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar,
Lexicon Grammar.

Synopsis Historically a dubbing country, Germany is not well-known for
subtitled productions. But while dubbing is predominant in Germany, more and
more German viewers prefer original and subtitled versions of their favourite
shows and films. Conventional subtitling, however, can be seen as a strong
intrusion into the original image that can not only disrupt but also destroy
the director’s intended shot composition and ... Mehr anzeigen

Synopsis Historically a dubbing country, Germany is not well-known for
subtitled productions. But while dubbing is predominant in Germany, more and
more German viewers prefer original and subtitled versions of their favourite
shows and films. Conventional subtitling, however, can be seen as a strong
intrusion into the original image that can not only disrupt but also destroy
the director’s intended shot composition and focus points. Long eye movements
between focus points and subtitles decrease the viewer’s information intake,
and especially German audiences, who are often not used to subtitles, seem to
prefer to wait for the next subtitle instead of looking back up again.
Furthermore, not only the placement, but also the overall design of
conventional subtitles can disturb the image composition – for instance titles
with a weak contrast, inappropriate typeface or irritating colour system. So
should it not, despite the translation process, be possible to preserve both
image and sound as far as possible? Especially given today’s numerous artistic
and technical possibilities and the huge amount of work that goes into the
visual aspects of a film, taking into account not only special effects, but
also typefaces, opening credits and text-image compositions. A further
development of existing subtitling guidelines would not only express respect
towards the original film version but also the translator’s work. The
presented study shows how integrated titles can increase information intake
while maintaining the intended image composition and focus points as well as
the aesthetics of the shot compositions. During a three-stage experiment, the
specifically for this purpose created integrated titles in the documentary
“Joining the Dots” by director Pablo Romero-Fresco were analysed with the help
of eye movement data from more than 45 participants. Titles were placed based
on the gaze behaviour of English native speakers and then rated by German
viewers dependant on a German translation. The results show that a reduction
of the distance between intended focus points and titles allow the viewers
more time to explore the image and connect the titles to the plot. The
integrated titles were rated as more aesthetically pleasing and reading
durations were shorter than with conventional subtitles. Based on the analysis
of graphic design and filmmaking rules as well as conventional subtitling
standards, a first workflow and set of placement strategies for integrated
titles were created in order to allow a more respectful handling of film
material as well as the preservation of the original image composition and
typographic film identity.

Synopsis
After being dominant during about a century since its invention by Baudouin de Courtenay at the end of the nineteenth century, morpheme is more and more replaced by lexeme in contemporary descriptive and theoretical morphology.
The notion of a lexeme is usually associated with the work of P. H. Matthews (1972, 1974), who characterizes it as a lexical entity abstracting over individual inflected words. ... Mehr anzeigen

Synopsis

After being dominant during about a century since its invention by Baudouin de Courtenay at the end of the nineteenth century, morpheme is more and more replaced by lexeme in contemporary descriptive and theoretical morphology.

The notion of a lexeme is usually associated with the work of P. H. Matthews (1972, 1974), who characterizes it as a lexical entity abstracting over individual inflected words. Over the last three decades, the lexeme has become a cornerstone of much work in both inflectional morphology and word formation (or, as it is increasingly been called, lexeme formation). The papers in the present volume take stock of the descriptive and theoretical usefulness of the lexeme, but also adress many of the challenges met by classical lexeme-based theories of morphology.

This volume of the series “Translation and Multilingual Natural Language Processing” includes most of the papers presented at the Workshop “Language Technology for a Multilingual Europe”, held at the University of Hamburg on September 27, 2011 in the framework of the conference GSCL 2011 with the topic “Multilingual Resources and Multilingual Applications”, along with several additional contributions. In addition to ... Mehr anzeigen

This volume of the series “Translation and Multilingual Natural Language Processing” includes most of the papers presented at the Workshop “Language Technology for a Multilingual Europe”, held at the University of Hamburg on September 27, 2011 in the framework of the conference GSCL 2011 with the topic “Multilingual Resources and Multilingual Applications”, along with several additional contributions. In addition to an overview article on Machine Translation and two contributions on the European initiatives META-NET and Multilingual Web, the volume includes six full research articles. Our intention with this workshop was to bring together various groups concerned with the umbrella topics of multilingualism and language technology, especially multilingual technologies. This encompassed, on the one hand, representatives from research and development in the field of language technologies, and, on the other hand, users from diverse areas such as, among others, industry, administration and funding agencies. The Workshop “Language Technology for a Multilingual Europe” was co-organised by the two GSCL working groups “Text Technology” and “Machine Translation” (http://gscl.info) as well as by META-NET (http://www.meta-net.eu).

This book provides a new analysis for the syntax of comparatives, focusing on
various deletion phenomena affecting the subclause. In particular, the
proposed account shows that Comparative Deletion is merely a surface
phenomenon that can be drawn back to the overtness of the comparative operator
and the availability of lower copies of a movement chain, and it is thus
subject to both language-internal and cross-linguistic ... Mehr anzeigen

This book provides a new analysis for the syntax of comparatives, focusing on
various deletion phenomena affecting the subclause. In particular, the
proposed account shows that Comparative Deletion is merely a surface
phenomenon that can be drawn back to the overtness of the comparative operator
and the availability of lower copies of a movement chain, and it is thus
subject to both language-internal and cross-linguistic variation. The main
focus of the book is on English, yet other languages are also discussed for
comparative purposes, with the aim of showing what the idiosyncratic
properties of English comparatives are.

Synopsis This book provides an introduction to the study of meaning in human
language, from a linguistic perspective. It covers a fairly broad range of
topics, including lexical semantics, compositional semantics, and pragmatics.
The chapters are organized into six units: (1) Foundational concepts; (2) Word
meanings; (3) Implicature (including indirect speech acts); (4) Compositional
semantics; (5) Modals, conditionals, and causation; (6) Tense & aspect. Most
of the chapters include exercises which can be used for class discussion
and/or homework assignments, and each chapter contains references for
additional reading on the topics covered. As the title indicates, this book is
truly an INTRODUCTION: it provides a solid foundation which will prepare
students to take more advanced and specialized courses in semantics and/or
pragmatics. It is also intended as a reference for fieldworkers doing primary
research on under-documented languages, to help them write grammatical
descriptions that deal carefully and clearly with semantic issues. The
approach adopted here is largely descriptive and non-formal (or, in some
places, semi-formal), although some basic logical notation is introduced. The
book is written at level which should be appropriate for advanced
undergraduate or beginning graduate students. It presupposes some previous
coursework in linguistics, but does not presuppose any background in formal
logic or set theory.

Synopsis What is semantic transparency, why is it important, and which factors
play a role in its assessment? This work approaches these questions by
investigating English compound nouns. The first part of the book gives an
overview of semantic transparency in the analysis of compound nouns,
discussing its role in models of morphological processing and differentiating
it from related notions. After a chapter on the ... Mehr anzeigen

Synopsis What is semantic transparency, why is it important, and which factors
play a role in its assessment? This work approaches these questions by
investigating English compound nouns. The first part of the book gives an
overview of semantic transparency in the analysis of compound nouns,
discussing its role in models of morphological processing and differentiating
it from related notions. After a chapter on the semantic analysis of complex
nominals, it closes with a chapter on previous attempts to model semantic
transparency. The second part introduces new empirical work on semantic
transparency, introducing two different sets of statistical models for
compound transparency. In particular, two semantic factors were explored: the
semantic relations holding between compound constituents and the role of
different readings of the constituents and the whole compound, operationalized
in terms of meaning shifts and in terms of the distribution of specifc
readings across constituent families. All semantic annotations used in the
book are freely available.

This study is the first wide-scope morpho-syntactic comparative study of
North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects to date. Given the historical depth of
Aramaic (almost 3 millennia) and the geographic span of the modern dialects,
coming in contact with various Iranian, Turkic and Semitic languages, these
dialects provide an almost pristine "laboratory" setting for examining
language change from areal, typological and historical ... Mehr anzeigen

This study is the first wide-scope morpho-syntactic comparative study of
North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects to date. Given the historical depth of
Aramaic (almost 3 millennia) and the geographic span of the modern dialects,
coming in contact with various Iranian, Turkic and Semitic languages, these
dialects provide an almost pristine "laboratory" setting for examining
language change from areal, typological and historical perspectives. While the
study has a very wide coverage of dialects, including also contact languages
(and especially Kurdish dialects), it focuses on a specific grammatical
domain, namely attributive constructions, giving a theoretically motivated and
empirically grounded account of their variation, distribution and development.
The results will be enlightening not only to Semitists seeking to learn about
this fascinating modern Semitic language group, but also for typologists and
general linguists interested in the dynamics of noun phrase morphosyntax.

This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current
linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational
Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical
Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar,
Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are
explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and
adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement,
and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained
with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these
approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition
and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that
humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is
critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are
discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current
theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures
being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated
on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-
visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that
the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable
into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common
to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured. The book
is a translation of the German book Grammatiktheorie, which was published by
Stauffenburg in 2010. The following quotes are taken from reviews: With this
critical yet fair reflection on various grammatical theories, Müller fills
what was a major gap in the literature. Karen Lehmann, Zeitschrift für
Rezen­sio­nen zur ger­man­is­tis­chen Sprach­wis­senschaft, 2012 Stefan
Müller’s recent introductory textbook, Gram­matik­the­o­rie, is an
astonishingly comprehensive and insightful survey for beginning students of
the present state of syntactic theory. Wolfgang Sternefeld und Frank Richter,
Zeitschrift für Sprach­wissen­schaft, 2012 This is the kind of work that has
been sought after for a while [...] The impartial and objective discussion
offered by the author is particularly refreshing. Werner Abraham, Germanistik,
2012

Synopsis This volume contains the complete collection of published and
unpublished work on German grammar by Tilman N. Höhle. It consists of two
parts. The first part is Topologische Felder, a book-length manuscript that
was written in 1983 but was never finished nor published. It is a careful
examination of the topological properties of German sentences, including a
discussion of typological assumptions. The ... Mehr anzeigen

Synopsis This volume contains the complete collection of published and
unpublished work on German grammar by Tilman N. Höhle. It consists of two
parts. The first part is Topologische Felder, a book-length manuscript that
was written in 1983 but was never finished nor published. It is a careful
examination of the topological properties of German sentences, including a
discussion of typological assumptions. The second part assembles all other
published and unpublished papers by Höhle on German grammar. All of these
papers were highly influential in German linguistics, in theoretical
linguistics in general, and in a specific variant of theoretical linguistics,
Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Topics covered are clause structure,
constituent order, coordination, (verum) focus, word structure, the
relationship between relative pronouns and verbs in V2, extraction, and the
foundations of a theory of phonology in constraint-based grammar.

While there are languages that code a particular grammatical role (e.g.
subject or direct object) in one and the same way across the board, many more
languages code the same grammatical roles differentially. The variables which
condition the differential argument marking (or DAM) pertain to various
properties of the NP (such as animacy or definiteness) or to event semantics
or various properties of the clause. While ... Mehr anzeigen

While there are languages that code a particular grammatical role (e.g.
subject or direct object) in one and the same way across the board, many more
languages code the same grammatical roles differentially. The variables which
condition the differential argument marking (or DAM) pertain to various
properties of the NP (such as animacy or definiteness) or to event semantics
or various properties of the clause. While the main line of current research
on DAM is mainly synchronic the volume tackles the diachronic perspective. The
tenet is that the emergence and the development of differential marking
systems provide a different kind of evidence for the understanding of the
phenomenon. The present volume consists of 18 chapters and primarily brings
together diachronic case studies on particular languages or language groups
including e.g. Finno-Ugric, Sino-Tibetan and Japonic languages. The volume
also includes a position paper, which provides an overview of the typology of
different subtypes of DAM systems, a chapter on computer simulation of the
emergence of DAM and a chapter devoted to the cross-linguistic effects of
referential hierarchies on DAM.